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Major Factors Causing Construction Delays in Mecca

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Major Factors Causing Construction Delays in Mecca Major Factors Causing Construction Delays in Mecca Ghazi Saad A Elawi (M.S.), Mohammed Algahtany (M.S.), Dean Kashiwagi (PhD, P.E.) and Kenneth Sullivan (PhD) Arizona State University Tempe, AZ, United States Delays are a major cause for concern in the construction industry in Saudi Arabia. This paper identifies the main causes of delay in infrastructure projects in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and compares these with projects around the country and other Gulf countries. Data was obtained from 49 infrastructure projects undertaken by the owner and were analyzed quantitatively to understand the causes and severity of delay. 10 risk factors were identified and were grouped into four categories. Average delay in infrastructure projects in Mecca was found to be 39% of the estimated projects schedules. The most severe cause of delay was found to be the land acquisition factor. This highlights the critical land ownership and acquisition issues that are prevailing in the city. Additionally, other factors that contribute to delay include contractors’ lack of expertise, haphazard underground utilities (line services), and re-designing. It is concluded that the majority of project delays were caused from the owner’s side as compared to contractors, consultants, and other project’s stakeholders. This finding matched with the research findings of the Gulf Countries Construction (GCC) industry’s literature. This study fills an important practice and research gap for improving the efficiency in delivering infrastructure projects in the holy city of Mecca and Gulf countries at large. Keywords: Delay, construction industry, Saudi Arabia, Risks, Roads and bridges. Introduction The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is experiencing a rapid growth in infrastructure, both in urban and rural areas. The government of Saudi Arabia is progressively allocating huge amount of resources and money to develop its infrastructure all over the country. The economic position of the country has driven the government to invest in construction projects. Between 2008 and 2013, the government spent close to $574.7 B on construction projects (Ventures Middle East, 2011). This high rate of spending has led many in the world to recognize the Saudi construction industry as the largest construction market in the Middle East. Looking ahead, the construction industry analysts around the world expect this growth to advance even more (Langdon, 2012). From the past three decades, all construction institutions in this region have agreed upon the fact that this industry is faced with the grave issue of inefficiencies, non-performance, and the lack of an analysis on construction delays. Al-Ghafly (1995) surveyed the contractors and consultants of major construction projects. His findings showed that around 37% of construction projects were believed to be delayed by the contractors, and 84% of all the projects which were under the supervision of the consultants had gone through serious delays. The researchers also reported that the average estimated time overrun amounted to 39% of the contractual time period. To support these claims, a study was conducted by Al Turkey (2011) with the aim of identifying the performance of the construction industry. It was found that more than 300 project managers from different sectors and disciplines in the construction industry agreed that 80% of the projects were subject to cost overruns, while 97% of the projects faced delay in project completion. © PBSRG 2015 Journal for the Advancement of Performance Information and Value VOL. 7 NO. 1 1 Elawi, Algahtany, Kashiwagi, Sullivan Contractors in Saudi Arabia estimate the total value of delayed public projects at nearly $146.6 B (Abdul-Ghafour, 2011). Mecca Al-Mukarramah is regarded as the holiest site in Islam and is the center of the annual Islamic pilgrimage. This place holds a special position for the followers of the Muslim religion all over the world and it receives over 20 million pilgrims during Umrah season alone (Mohammed, 2014). The high volume of religious devotees and tourists in this city has led to the enormous infrastructure development in Mecca. The expansion of the Holy Mosque has cost the government $10.6 B in just a span of 6 years (2010 to 2015). This enormous cost of development was to develop the 6000 square meter (sq.mt.) area around the holy mosque (Qssas, 2014). This indeed illustrates the high cost of construction and development in this famous city. Furthermore, land ownership is one of the major challenges that are faced by the developing authorities. Land rates around the central area of Mecca were around $80,000/SM during 2008 (Al Thaqafi, 2008). This figure rose to $133,000/SM during 2010 (CW Staff, 2010) and to $400,000/SM during 2013 (Arab News, 2013). Consequently, the Saudi government spent over $8.8 billion on land acquisition between 2009 and 2010 (Al Mufadhli, 2011). Problem In view of the large scale investment and the need for fast paced development, cost and time overruns are a serious issue. Research findings indicate that around 70% of the construction projects in Saudi Arabia have faced delays. Zain Al-Abedien (1983) found that delays were a concern for over 70% of all the projects undertaken by the Ministry of Housing and Public Works. Al-Sultan (1989) reported the same percentage of delays in construction projects even after six years. Al-Khalil and Al-Ghafly (1999) in their investigation found that 72% of the total projects undertaken were delayed during this period. This trend continued even during 2006, it was found in the Eastern Province that 70% of projects faced time overruns by 10% to 30% of the estimated project schedule (Assaf & Al-Hejji, 2006). Projects in Mecca (Western province) are not an exception to these delays. With over 5 years of intensive work experience as a project manager for public infrastructure projects, the main researcher and project manager in Mecca believes that delays are a major hindrance during execution of public projects. While very limited research has been done which analyzes the root cause of delays, it is a challenge for the industry professionals (Elawi, 2015). They are aiming to solve these issues to enhance the project delivery mechanisms. Research Aim and Objectives This paper identifies and examines the causes of delay in the construction of infrastructure (roads and bridges) projects in the Mecca province of Saudi Arabia. The objectives are to: 1. Identify construction performance and causes of delays in Gulf Countries Construction (GCC) industry. 2. Determine the performance of 49 infrastructure projects. 3. Identify the causes of delay and the parties responsible for each of them as per the owners’ perspective. 4. Compare the analyzed delay factors and cases findings with other studies from Saudi and Gulf Countries Construction (GCC) industry. © PBSRG 2015 Journal for the Advancement of Performance Information and Value VOL. 7 NO. 1 2 Major Factors Causing Construction Delays in Meccah Research Methodology This study uses a quantitative approach to analyze delay factors and will be conducted in three phases; a literature review, an analysis of the collected data and a comparison of the delay factors and findings of this case study with other related literature. It was found that all previous studies analyzing the delay factors in Saudi and Gulf countries construction industry were completely based on literature reviews. Most researchers tend to conduct a survey to assess the causal impact, severity and frequency of delay factors. However, in this study, the authors will identify the delay causes based on a real time quantitative performance analysis of all the infrastructure projects under consideration. After that, these delay factors will be evaluated by their frequency of occurrence on 49 projects and the severity will be measured in terms of percentages. By assigning these delay factors to the responsible stakeholders, the root cause for the majority of delays and the responsible party will be determined. The research method for this study is a detailed analysis and quantitative comparison of delay factors for 49 infrastructure projects in the Mecca province. One of the researchers has been working as a construction project manager for the Saudi Arabian government for past 5 years. (Elawi, 2015) His responsibility is to manage and oversee the infrastructure (roads and bridges) projects in Mecca located at the Western province of Saudi Arabia. This study is limited to the constructions taking place only in the Mecca province mainly because of the familiarity and expertise of the main researcher in this 1,200 square kilometer area. (Elawi, 2015) Moreover, all of the cases in consideration (49 in total) are either bridge or road projects. The reason for selecting these projects is because of the demand to construct and develop the infrastructure in this region to support the millions of devotees that come for their pilgrimage for Hajj and Umrah. The second stage will focus on analyzing the case study findings; the authors intend to analyze a total of 49 construction projects in Mecca province. The aim of this comprehensive analysis is to determine the major risk factors that affect the project’s performance and the stakeholder responsible for causing those risks (i.e. client, contractor, consultant, or other stakeholders). The data for these construction projects was obtained from the owner and it contains the following information: 1. Total cost of the project 2. Planned vs. actual start and completion date 3. Factors that caused delay in those projects In the third stage, the authors will compare the risk factors with other similar research studies carried out in the Saudi construction industry and the Gulf States construction industries in order to find out whether or not the risk factors in the author’s data are similar to other local studies in the industry. GCC Literature Review While reviewing literature that has described various causes and effects of delays in Saudi and other Gulf Countries’ Construction industries, the severity of the situation was realized.
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